


Have you heard the news that you're dead

by fictionalaspect



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, Hey Monday
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-13
Updated: 2010-05-13
Packaged: 2017-10-09 10:25:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/86265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionalaspect/pseuds/fictionalaspect
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Cassadee is an accidental vampire. For <a href="http://cool-rain-kiss.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://cool-rain-kiss.livejournal.com/"><b>cool_rain_kiss</b></a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have you heard the news that you're dead

\--

It was one of those things that shouldn't have happened--_couldn't_ have happened.

So absolutely predictably--it did.

\--

As near as Cassadee could tell, it happened like this:

They were somewhere in Louisiana, maybe, or Mississippi. Somewhere with enough heat and humidity so that when she grabbed the mike stand during sound-check it slipped, bounced off the amp, and then bounced right back into her arm. She didn't notice she was bleeding until after, when her arm felt a little weird and wet and she looked down to see a long stripe of blood on her bicep.

("Oh, shit, do you think it's going to scar?" she remembered saying, while she was getting cleaned up in the medical tent. "Dude, I can tell people I got in a bar fight."

"It's not going to scar," Mike said. He was drinking a bottle of water, condensation collecting on the thin paper label and running down the sides of the bottle. "It's like, a scratch."

"I am totally bleeding," Cassadee said. "Look. I'm telling you. It will be a big awesome scar and then when I tell people I got in a bar fight you can jump in and be like 'Haha! You should see the other guy!' "

Jersey poked his head in. "Are you dead?"

"No," Cassadee said, and then winced when the EMT cleaned it out with something that stung. "But we're going to tell everyone I got in a bar fight, okay?"

"You're not old enough to get into bars," Jersey said.

"Okay, okay, a knife fight," Cassadee said. "It can happen outside the bar. That I didn't go to. Whatever."

"People don't get in knife fights anymore," Mike said.

"I get in knife fights," Jersey said. "I'm street," and Cassadee laughed)

She didn't need stitches, or anything. The EMT wrapped her up in a few layers of gauze and told her to take it easy for a while before the show. There was an air conditioned tent backstage, and Cassadee went and grabbed her hoodie from the bus and balled it up under her head and took a nap for a while. When she woke up, the gauze was a little weird, torn in a few places, but she'd been sleeping on the grass, so, whatever. She was in the band tent with everyone milling around, and half of that time she'd been sleeping on Mike's stomach.

She wasn't worried until the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that.

\--

Mostly, It was just a little unnerving when all of a sudden your bandmates started to look like food.

\--

"I'm going to have to get a test kit. A tomato test kit," Cassadee said, staring mornfully into the fridge. "Do they even make those?"

"...no?" Alex said. He wasn't really awake yet, and the coffee maker seemed to be confusing him. Cassadee leaned over and hit the "on" switch on the coffee maker. Alex gave her a look of eternal gratitude.

"It makes coffee," Cassadee said very seriously. "In the same way every morning. It's always the same button."

"Lies!" Jersey called out from behind her. "Filthy lies."

Cassadee held up a bag and said, "Swear on your father's grave there's no tomato juice in this one."

"My dad's not dead," Alex said. He frowned.

"Not yet," Cassadee said. "Hah."

"Says the littlest vampire who doesn't kill people," Jersey said, brushing past her to find a clean mug.

"Ew," Cassadee said. "Look, I told you. It's not my fault I have this weird--"

"--vampire condition--"

"--_medical_ condition." Cassadee finished. "I mean. Pete said it wasn't that wierd."

Jersey and Alex both looked at her.

"Yeah, okay," Cassadee said. She blew upwards, puffing her bangs out of her eyes. "I guess it's a little weird."

"It's cute," Jersey said. "You're all evil and bloodthirsty and shit."

Cassadee licked her left fang thoughtfully. They were barely noticeable, except when she was doing something like pouring a bag of fresh blood into a large mug, and then they sort of--grew.

Next to her, Jersey smelled really good. Like, _really_ good. Food-good. Hot-tuna-melt-good. Roast-chicken-sandwich-good.

Cassadee drank her breakfast.

Quickly.

\--

"It's kind of like we match," Jersey said into the mirror. He ran his tongue around the inside of his bottom lip so his piercings stuck out.

"I don't have fangs on the bottom," Cassadee said, and then grinned a toothpaste grin, just to make sure. "See?"

"I think it would be really cool to be a vampire," Jersey said.

"No you don't," Cassadee said, and looked very carefully down into the sink and spit out her toothpaste. It swirled unevenly down the drain as the road rumbled and bumped underneath them. "You really, really don't."

"No seriously, we could start a like, band of--"

"Jersey, don't," Cassadee said softly. "Lay off, okay?"

"Oh, hey," Jersey said. "I mean. I was totally kidding, Cass."

"I know, it's cool, I know," Cassadee said, and Jersey scrubbed a hand through his hair and Cassadee kept her hands to herself.

\--

"Band meeting," Mike said. "Vampire style." He had a notepad. It didn't bode well.

"Do we need capes?" Elliott said.

"Fuck capes. It's so hot out," Alex said.

"You're wearing all black," Cassadee said, and scrunched her toes under his thigh. It _was_ really hot, but now her hands and feet got very cold, very easily. "And sitting in the sun."

"Wait, shouldn't you be like, melting or something?" Mike said. "Wait. I thought--"

"Um, no?" Cassadee said. "I mean. I haven't melted _yet_. I'm not really planning on it any time soon."

"And you can still see yourself in mirrors," Jersey pointed out. "Shit, maybe you're not really a vampire."

Cassadee snorted, and them smiled at him. Widely.

"Uh, nevermind," Jersey said weakly. "Wow. Okay. Forget I said that."

Cassadee licked her lips a little. She still had her lunch in her hand, a half-full water bottle filled with blood. Cassadee wondered idly if she could make smoothies. Blood smoothies. But no, then she'd have to like, disinfect the tiny portable blender. That sounded complicated.

"So Pete says he's found a good, solid supplier," Mike said. He'd flipped open his notepad, and was doodling on the side. "Deliveries every week while we're on tour. Afterwards, he's not sure yet, but he'll figure something out."

"Yeah, I talked to him for a little bit yesterday," Cassadee said. "He's working on it."

"Right," Mike said. "So okay. Garlic?"

"What about it?" Cassadee said.

"We have to find out if you're allergic," Mike said apologetically. "I mean. We should find out now, before Elliott orders garlic on his pizza and you fall over dead."

"Um," Cassadee said. "I don't think--" and then she was hit with a wave of nausea. It was overwhelming, the sort that left her gut cramping and had her clutching her arm over her stomach to make sure her insides weren't falling out.

"That's a yes," Mike said, a little sadly. "Sorry, Cass."

"Jesus, warn a girl," Cassadee muttered, as she straightened up. She caught a glimpse of Jersey wrapping something up very tightly in plastic bags, and then getting up to throw it away.

"I really like garlic pizza," Elliott said forlornly.

"Me too," Jersey said.

"Maybe I can just--" Cassadee said, and she was interrupted by a wave of protests. "We like you more," Jersey said, and squeezed her shoulder. "We'll give up garlic for you. No big deal."

Cassadee smiled a little and tucked her toes in tighter.

\--

It wasn't a big deal, Cassadee told herself. No pressure no pressure _nopressure_\--

"Can you find out if I'm allowed to like a boy?" she said into the phone, all in a rush.

Pete snickered.

"Shut up," she said miserably. "I know. I _know_."

"I don't think there's a law against it," Pete said. "Just try not to eat him."

"That's what I'm worried about!" Cassadee said, and flailed her hands a little. "What if I get hungry! What if something happens!"

"Hang on," Pete said, and covered the phone for a minute. "Patrick says you should eat first," he said, when he came back.

"How does Patrick know?" Cassadee said.

"I don't ask questions," Pete said. "He's Patrick."

"Sure," Cassadee said. "I know he's Patrick, but seriously, what if--"

"Cassadee. Cass," Pete said. "Calm down. You won't eat him."

"That's what you say now," Cassadee said. "When you're short one bassist then what will you say, huh? huh?"

"Oh _shit_," Pete said, and then Cassadee realized exactly what she'd let slip and clapped her hand over her mouth. Pete was cracking up into the phone.

"I mean," Cassadee said weakly. "Hypothetically. Hypothetically speaking."

"Uh-huh," Pete said.

\--

\--

Jersey kisses her early on a Tuesday morning, and the only thing Cassadee can think is _oh shit, oh SHIT, do I taste like blood_? It's raining outside, and through the bus curtains the windows are covered with a filmy, liquid gray. It should have been sweet, wonderful, cozy.

It would have been awesome if she hadn't nicked Jersey's lip.

"Um," Cassadee says weakly. "Crap. Uh."

"Hey, it's okay," Jersey says. He has one hand in her hair, and he uses it to gently scratch the base of her skull. "I told you--"

"You were supposed to be kidding," Cassadee says. "I thought you were kidding." Her heart is squeezing, pounding, because does that mean he, what if, did he really mean to--?

Jersey says, "So what's a little teeth between friends?"


End file.
